Shafaqna English- Carlo Ancelotti has been insisting for weeks that mental toughness and fighting spirit would be the key factors in a long and demanding World Cup. Based on what we saw, Brazil have clearly taken that message on board – although for large portions of their game against Japan, they appeared intent on pushing that very idea to its breaking point.
It could be argued that this wasn’t merely a 2–1 win for Brazil. Rather, it had all the hallmarks of a classic Ancelotti performance: control, a period of instability, trouble created by their own mistakes, and then – just as common sense was giving up hope for extra time – a late rebellious moment that came as much from raw emotion as it did from tactical planning.
Source: Reuters